Open Source Eco-Building Toolkit to Make Affordable Eco-Housing to the World

Marcin Jakubowski, a Polish-American, with his open source eco-building toolkit is inspiring, informing and connecting people across the built environment with the solutions to build better eco-housing.

Frustrated with the lack of relevance to pressing world issues in his education, he founded Open Source Ecology in 2003 in order to make closed-loop manufacturing a reality.

His work has recently been recognized as a 2012 TED Senior Fellow, in Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2012, as a 2013 Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, and a White House Champion of Change in 2013.

A crowd funding campaign with a goal of $80,000 is currently live at Kickstarter; to make this toolkit accessible to everyone.

Open Source Ecology (OSE) has been working on the Global Village Construction Set—a set of 50 industrial machines for building civilization from scratch.

How does it work?

A library of modules that can be put together like building blocks allows you to design a house, easily and for free. The modular system combined with a formula for rapid builds makes it possible for a large group of (mostly inexperienced) people to then build this house in as little as 5 days.

Builds can be executed by a contracted crew, a group of friends and relatives, or using a social production model. In this social production model, builds are structured as educational experiences and take place in the context of training workshops.

The library also includes designs and instructional for a number of off-grid utilities and appliances—from solar power and water catchment to biogas and hydronic heating. The focus is on regenerative construction, the project also includes a replicable materials production facility—which allows you to produce brick, insulation, lumber, etc. from local raw materials.

They are also developing a collection of off-grid, sustainable utilities and appliances to satisfy the other needs like power, water, sanitation, etc.

Library of Building Modules

There is a library of various walls, windows, doors, roof, utility and functional modules which can be combined to create a variety of structures like studios, homes, multi-family houses, greenhouses, barns, workshops, schools, offices and many more.